A modern Indian ink drawing of a drunken party of men and women. Death above in a cloud levels his dart at them. Upright, 5¼ by 3½. In the author’s possession.
A spirited drawing in Indian ink of two Deaths as pugilists with their bottle-holders. Oblong, 7 by 4½. In the author’s possession.
A pen and ink tinted drawing, intitled “The Last Drop.” A female seated before a table on which is a bottle of gin or brandy. She is drinking a glass of it, Death standing by and directing his dart at her. In the author’s possession.
Mr. Dagley, in the second edition of his “Death’s Doings,” p. 7, has noticed some very masterly designs chalked on a wall bordering the road from Turnham-Green towards Kew-Bridge. They exhibited figures of Death as a skeleton ludicrously occupied with gamblers, dancers, boxers, &c. all of the natural size. They were unfortunately swept away before any copies were made to perpetuate them, as they well deserved. It was stated in The Times newspaper that these sketches were made by a nephew of Mr. Baron Garrow, then living in retirement near the spot, but who afterwards obtained a situation in India. These drawings were made in 1819.
Four very clever coloured drawings by Rowlandson, being probably a portion of an unfinished series of a Death’s Dance. 1. The Suicide. A man seated near a table is in the act of discharging a pistol at his head. The sudden and terrific appearance of Death, who, starting from behind a curtain, significantly stares at him through an eye-glass. One of the candles is thrown down, and a wine-glass jerked out of the hand of the suicide, who, from a broken sword and a hat with a cockade, seems intended for some ruined soldier of fashion. A female servant, alarmed at the report of the pistol, rushes into the apartment. Below, these verses:
Death smiles, and seems his dart to hide,
When he beholds the suicide.
2. The Good Man, Death, and the Doctor. A young clergyman reads prayers to the dying man; the females of his family are shedding tears. Death unceremoniously shoves out the physician, who puts one hand behind him, as expecting a fee, whilst with the other he lifts his cane to his nostrils. Below, these lines:
No scene so blest in Virtue’s eyes,
As when the man of virtue dies.
3. The Honey-moon. A gouty old fellow seated on a sopha with his youthful bride, who puts her hand through a window for a military lover to kiss it. A table covered with a desert, wine, &c. Death, stretching over a screen, pours something from a bottle into the glass which the husband holds in his hand. Below, these verses:
When the old fool has drunk his wine,
And gone to rest, I will be thine.